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BOE Approves $63.2 Million Budget

January 27, 2012
by John Rook

On Tuesday night, the Cheshire Board of Education Finance Committee forwarded the Superintendent's $63.2 million budget proposal on to the full Board.
On Thursday, the Board followed suit, approving the budget untouched, sending it for review by the Cheshire Town Manager.
In early January, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Greg Florio recommended that the Town increase spending by 3.02 percent, or a $1.8 million increase over last year. For the past several weeks the Board has been holding special meetings to review each aspect of the proposed budget, pouring over numbers and explaining to the public where the money for each account has been, and will likely be spent.
That came to a conclusion Jan. 26, when the Board voted 6-1 to send Florio's recommendation off for review untouched.
Now, the budget will be looked at by Town Manager Michael Milone who could choose to make changes to the proposal or submit it to the Cheshire Town Council as is.
The Council will have final say over how much is ultimately granted to the school district, and those discussions have the chance to become tense.
On Thursday, several members of the Board mentioned the likelihood that the Council would make changes, considering that, back in December at a meeting between members of the BOE and Council, Council Finance Committee Chairman David Schrumm informed those in attendance that the Town may only have $1.4 million in new revenue, total, to spread among all the departments in Cheshire. Those comments were not met kindly by members of the Board, and led to a heated exchange between Board Chairman Gerry Brittingham and Councilor Andy Falvey.
For more on this story, see next week's Cheshire Herald.